6x6 Pointers for EVERYONE!

6X6 POINTERS FOR EVERYONE!

6X6:FORTUNE is coming whether you're ready or not. Every year Mystery House Comics publishes an anthology where 6 writers and 6 artists team up to tell 5 page stories on a theme. Creators are pulled from pools of veterans, amateurs, and somewhere in-between to create a comic book that reflects the creative potential of the Treasure Valley... AND YOU COULD BE PART OF IT! For more details, click here.

Once you're done come back to this post where we collect articles from 2016 by me, Jon Keithley, and Shanae Lavelle, two of four editors for this year's edition, about what we're looking for as we sift through your submissions!

The deed is done. The sample script for acceptance to our annual 6x6 anthology is posted. Artists are reading and rereading it as we speak. Soaking it in. Pressing pencil to paper, or turning on their tablets and blowing dust off their stylus. Because we announced the theme along with the opening of submissions, writers have already had a few weeks to brainstorm their stories. What I’ve found is that most writers will hold onto the script, editing and rolling it over, until the last week before the deadline. For those writers, I thought I would offer some advice.

For many of you, I hope this is your first comic book script. That’s part of the mission of 6x6, and a bulk of the fun. We want to provide an opportunity for people to dip their toe into comic book scripting, test the water, see if they like the temperature. Along the way they’ll pick up tips on self-publishing and working with an artist as well. However, if this is your first script, chances are you’re more than a little intimidated. Last week I posted one of my scripts, so you could see how I format (not industry standard, by the way, and also reprinted at the bottom of this post). I thought this week I’d talk about some beginning mistakes I’ve made and continue to see, some shortcuts I’ve found, and some lessons I’ve learned.

1) Don’t be too wordy. You don’t want to cram a paragraph into a panel. You want the images to have room to breathe. If it takes a paragraph of dialogue to communicate the action in one individual panel, you might be trying to jam a 32-page comic into 5 pages. Ask yourself if there’s one image that could effectively convey all or most of the words you’re using. Show don’t tell. This is a visual medium after all.

2) Don’t overuse narration. This goes right along with the first one, of course, but it’s worth pointing out. If you haven’t written a script before, odds are you’re coming from a prose background. Heavy narration tends to be a crutch, or a tool for transition, for writers coming from a short story or novel background. They’re used to their narration being the brush that paints the setting, the look of the characters, and the action. If you’re tempted to put a narrator, ask yourself why. Does it help justify the story? Does the twist not work without a detached party? Are the inner thoughts of the main character crucial to the mood or the story? Is this information something I could be communicating with concise images and trust in my artist? Stuff like that.

3) Don’t narrate an action we’re currently seeing. I know we just talked a lot about narrators, but even a story without a narrator could have the main character saying “I went outside to chop some wood,” laid over a panel showing him outside, chopping wood. If an image clearly communicates what’s happening, it’s kind of condescending to explain it as well. Comic book readers are some of the most intelligent readers, because the format requires more assumption than prose. They’ll understand that he’s chopping wood. This is another chance for me to say, “Trust your artist.”

4) Don’t try to tell a 32-page story in 5 pages, as I said before. For a story to be complete and uncluttered, it should be the sort of thing MEANT to be 5 pages. Many times I’ve tried to cram what is essentially a first issue into 5 or so pages. If that sort of story is what you’re dead set on telling, try to think of it as a scene from that larger book, but one that communicates character and probably has a beginning, middle, and end. That leads to:

5) Try working backwards. Well, not strictly backwards, but it helps when your page count is limited. Do a rough outline or thumbnails that starts with where you want to end up, and work backwards from there. If you go back and look at the script I posted last week, it opens with a page breakdown. That was to remind myself what information needed to be communicated on each page, before my long-winded self could even start sending my characters on tangents. I usually conceptualize page 1, then 5, then work backwards from there. “Oops, it doesn’t feel like the middle is fitting into 3 pages!” By working backwards, I’m less connected to material and able to make efficient cuts with my brain instead of my heart.

6) Set the scene. Remember that a reader starts with NO CONTEXT for where the story takes place or what to expect. Opening with panels intended to reveal the setting and the characters’ physical relationship to it helps the reader to get their bearings. It’s possible to open or tell a complete story entirely in close-up, but if done wrong it can impart a sort of seasickness.

7) Every odd-numbered page should end with a question or a cliffhanger. This doesn't apply to you guys so much, because you don't know where in the anthology your story will land, but odd number pages should prompt the reader to turn the page, instinctively. If you give them a choice, they might just put the book down because they have to pee. I also believe you can end in a gag or punchline, but I’m pretty passionate about the power of laughter. I doubt that most industry professionals would agree with me.

8) Read these:Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner, and The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neill. They’ll tell you all the stuff I just said, but they’ll be more convincing and use visual examples.

I’m going to stress before I go that these are just things I notice when I’m reading first-time scripts, and examples of a process that works for ME exclusively, because that’s my only real point of reference. Please let me know if you find any of this helpful in the comments below. Feel free to share lessons you’ve learned during your process as well!

Also, tune in tomorrow for a special BONUS BLOG by Shivertown artist and 6x6 co-editor, Shanae Lavelle, called "6x6 Pointers for Artists!"

Guess what? YOU GET TO SKIP THAT WHOLE TOMORROW NONSENSE! Without further ado, here is "6x6 Pointers for Artists" by 6x6 editor and Mystery House Comics Arti Director Shanae Lavelle!

In yesterday's Mystery House Comments I broke down my tips and pointers for first-time script writers submitting stories for this year's 6x6. Today we have a celebrity special guest, Shanae Lavelle, to break down her thumbnails for the first page of a script I wrote for an earlier edition of 6x6 (to read the complete script, click here). Shanae is the Artist and Co-Creator of Shivertown, and serves as Co-Editor and Art Director for 6x6.

Here is an example of how I go about translating Jon's scripts into pages. You'll see thumbnail sketches of the entire page and the way in which I go about breaking down each page before I start the actual finished page.

First, I read the entire script. It gives me an idea of where the story is going and what the characters look like. I call this a preliminary read-through. I get images going in my head; it get's me excited about doing the sketches.

Second, I will get out my sketch book. As you can see from the sketch, I like to draw the outline of the entire page with a margin on the side for me to note what page and how many panels. In the margin, I will do a mini-page that breaks down simple panel placement. Jon wrote six panels, with the last one being eventful, so I wanted to give it a slightly larger panel to help build up the suspense. The margin will come in handy later when I need to notate any changes or feedback that Jon may have when we look at it together.

Third, I do a small sketch of the Weston character because Jon went out of his way to describe what he looked like in the script.

Fourth, I start sketching in each panel. You may notice that the first panel ended up moving off to the left side a little. As I drew the sketch I realized the bubble placement wasn't going to work at first, so instead of re-drawing the whole panel, I just moved the "camera angle" over to the other side so it would fit more.

Bubble placement is something I have to go out of my way to include in these sketches because if it gets forgotten in the early stages, the panels get drawn with a disregard for them which can lead to trouble areas down the road.

I leave little notes to myself through the page, like the word behind on panel three. I did that because the angle changes and in case I forget or Jon has questions, it's a kind of shorthand. Also, on panel six, the tires are very basic in the sketch so I left notes on the angle placement for the tires. This is a big moment, and I also want to convey a lot of speed is happening before the collision is taking place, so lots of extra circle shapes are added too.

After that, I would go through and do the rest of the story and pages. Then, I would walk Jon through it to see if it is actually going to work for him. I can also ask for details on the bicycles and the other little visual things as we go. Any changes he wants to see, I can notate again in the margin that I leave on the side.

CHARACTERS

JON is tall and skinny. Brunette. He has about a foot on Weston. He has spiky hair and a Hawaiian shirt. Each time we see him, he can have a different Hawaiian shirt to mark the passage of time.

WESTON is short and fit. His style of dress can vary more, but he bounces between sporty and preppy. He’s blonde, wears pooka shells, and has big, entrancing blue eyes. And he’s wicked good-looking.

PAGE 1-

1- Jon and Weston

Jon and Weston ride their bikes out of Jon’s garage and down a driveway. They are 16 and best friends. Inseparable. They are ecstatic. Not to be riding bikes, but to be sharing epic stories of friendship. Whenever they’re telling stories, they’re wired and over-the-top happy. On this particular day Weston is wearing shorts and a white tank top or wife-beater (though I’m not sure what the politically correct terminology for that is).

JON

Remember that time I tried to-

WESTON

-jump that ditch and missed? I was thinking the same thing!

2- The boys ride around a street corner. They’re on the wrong side of the road, but on the sidewalk, bikes alongside one another. Jon on Weston’s left, in front by half a foot.

WESTON

Your foot got stuck in the mud.

JON

I was like, “Ahhhh!”

3- The road dips down steeply. This is a big hill they’re going down.

WESTON

If you hadn’t twisted, you wouldn’t have sprained your ankle-

4- They’re still on the hill, but it’s less steep. The open mouth of a street has appeared on Jon’s left. They’re coming to an intersection.

WESTON

This is where I live.

JON

What?

WESTON

Turn left.

JON

What?

5- Jon on left with invisible arrows pointing his intention: forward. Weston on right with invisible arrows pointing his intention: left. These are conflicting intentions, that will end in a horrible wreck.

6- Close-up of their wheels connecting. Uh-oh.

Shanae LaVelle spent most of her young life wanting to make comics and cartoons, fascinated by its imitation of people and society. She rediscovered hope for this dream with Mystery House Comics. Shanae is the artist and co-creator of Shivertown, and serves as the Art Director for MHC. Her art is featured in Tarzan and the Comics of Idaho and 6x6, an anthology of which she is also an editor. Always looking at opportunities as adventure to improve her skills while reaching out to those who hope to do the same.

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